CCM, 3 Other Parties in CAG Good Books
THE Controller and Auditor General (CAG) has given qualified opinion to all the big political parties' accounts, the Public Accounts Committee heard in Dar es Salaam.
Findings of the CAG indicate that some nine out of 21 political parties' accounts were audited on grounds of directives issued by the Parliamentary Public Account Committee (PAC) in October, last year.
The directive was then to audit political parties account from 2009/2010 to 2012/2013. The Political Parties Act stipulates that political parties that receive grants from the government to submit their audited report to the office of the Registrar of Political Parties by October 31.
On Tuesday, Assistant Auditor General, Mr Benja Majura presented the findings to the PAC, at a meeting attended by the Registrar of Political Parties; Judge (retired) Francis Mutungi. It shows that six political parties without representation in the House have a disclaimer opinion. Political parties that got qualified opinion, according to Mr Majura, are the ruling CCM, Chadema, CUF and NCCR Mageuzi.
However, UDP was the only political party, which is represented in the Parliament that was not audited. Mr Majura said the remaining six political parties, which were audited got disclaimer opinion after documents that they presented before the CAG failed to reconcile with parties accounts.
They are the National Reconstruction Alliance (NRA), Union for Multiparty (UMD), Africa Progressive Party of Tanzania (APPT Maendeleo), National League for Democracy (NLD), Alliance for Democratic Change (ADC), Sauti ya Umma (SAU) and Chama cha Ukombozi wa Umma (Chauma).
It now turns out that the political parties that didn't submit their audited report risk losing some money, which they are given through grants. Judge Mutungi said Section 18 (4) of 1992 of the Political Parties Act requires his office to withhold some political parties' grants if they fail to submit audited report.
According to the Deputy Registrar of Political Parties, Mr Sisty Nyahoza, Section 18 (5) of the same Act gives the registrar powers to report any political party or politicians who will be implicated of embezzlement of public funds to police for necessary legal action.
He noted that in the event that any political party leader is found to have embezzled funds, the registrar has powers to report him to police so that they can investigate and bring the culprit before legal organs. Eight political parties, which are represented in the Parliament, are entitled to receive grants from the government. These include CCM, Chadema, CUF, NCCR, UDP, TLP, APPT Maendeleo and DP.
The CAG told the committee that his office encountered various challenges during the process of auditing political parties' accounts. Among the challenges, according to Mr Majura, is that many political parties don't have professional accountants. Mr Majura also added that various laws which govern political parties contradict one another.
"The Political Parties Act require the CAG to audit political parties by September, so that they can submit their report by the end of October but political parties are closing their books of accounts by the end of a calendar year; this makes it very difficult for the auditors," said Mr Majura.
The assistant CAG also added that it was difficult for his office to independently verify parties' properties, which were declared in the forms since most of them were not officially verifiable. Mr Majura also said some of political parties wanted the CAG to audit the accounts, which contained grants money and not those that contain money which are contributed by members and other institution.